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☆ Full-time Airbnb hosts who work between 2 and 15 hours a week on their portfolios share 5 tools that help them improve efficiency and free up more time
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Full-time Airbnb hosts Kent He and Nathan Turner are efficient with their time. He spends 2-3 hours a week managing his properties, while Turner spends no more than 15 hours. "We probably only work 10 to 15 hours a week," said Nathan, who used to deliver for FedEx. The Turners and He shared five tools they use that help them work efficiently on their Airbnb businesses and free up more time. You may have the most unique Airbnb property, but if you don't properly market it, guests might never see.

Persons: Nathan Turner, Turner, Rankbreeze, doesn't, Nathan, Taniera Turner, Taniera, —, Monday.com Turner, Airbnb, I'm, It's, they'll Organizations: Kent, FedEx, Marriott, Google Locations: San Diego, Scottsdale , Arizona, Houston, Scottsdale, PriceLabs

☆ 5 US cities seeing the biggest home price gains and the 5 suffering the steepest declines as some pockets of the market become red-hot again, according to Redfin data
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

US home prices are now down only 0.9% from this time last year, Redfin reports. The housing market continues its momentum, with home prices up every month since February. After falling 5% between June 2022 and January 2023, home price are now down just 0.9% year-over-year, according to Redfin data published Thursday. "Home-price declines are shrinking," said Dana Anderson, a data journalist at Redfin, in the report. Below, we've listed the five cities that have seen the biggest year-over-year price growth, as well as the five cities that have seen the steepest declines, according to Redfin.

Persons: Dana Anderson Organizations: Cincinnati, NSA Locations: Providence , Milwaukee, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Redfin, U.S

☆ Himalayan glaciers could lose up to 80% of their ice by 2100 as temperatures rise, report warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Kathleen Magramo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The report found that glaciers in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountain range region melted 65% faster in the 2010s compared with the previous decade, which suggests higher temperatures are already having an impact. With between 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius of warming, the world’s highest mountain region stands to lose 30% to 50% of its volume by 2100, the latest report said. Glaciers in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountain range region are melting faster than expected. Courtesy Jitendra Raj Bajracharya/ICIMODRapid warming and glacial meltAbout 240 million people live in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, many of their cultures dating back thousands of years, and another the 1.65 billion live downstream. “The glaciers of the Hindu Kush Himalaya are a major component of the Earth system.

Persons: Saleemul Huq, Bajracharya, Amina Maharjan, Maharjan, yaks, ”, Izabella Koziell Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, International Centre, Integrated Mountain Development, World Meteorological Organization Scientists, International Locations: Hong Kong, Nepal, Afghanistan, Myanmar, China, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Asia, Murree Hills

☆ Tight supply is driving home values up. Here are the price and inventory changes by state over last year, according to a real-estate analytics company.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-18 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

National median closing prices for single-family homes have been on the rise for the last 13 weeks. The major contributor to the upward price pressure is a lack of inventory, says Brandon Lwowski. Below are two tables that demonstrate the inventory and price changes by state. The major contributor to the upward price pressure is low inventory. Supply of single-family homes has been slipping since the 2008 financial crisis.

Persons: Brandon Lwowski, we're, Price, Lwowski Organizations: MLS, HouseCanary, Dakotas, New, District of Columbia, Alabama, South Carolina Locations: HouseCanary, Wyoming, Dakotas . State, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arizona, Carolina, Utah, Georgia, Nebraska, Michigan, Oregon, Indiana, Hawaii, Delaware, Virginia, Maine, Nevada, Iowa, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Washington, Ohio, Maryland, Vermont, York, Minnesota, Massachusetts, California, Illinois, Hampshire, Wisconsin, Idaho, Colorado, Missouri, Connecticut, Jersey, Alaska, Kansas, Montana, Arkansas , Wyoming

☆ Humana joins UnitedHealth in flagging cost hit from rising surgeries
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 16 (Reuters) - Health insurer Humana Inc (HUM.N) joined larger rival UnitedHealth (UNH.N) in warning of a jump in medical costs this year due to higher-than-expected demand for surgeries and other medical procedures. Humana on Friday also pointed to elevated demand for outpatient surgeries and dental services, as well as strong inpatient demand in recent weeks, a trend it said was diverging from historical seasonality patterns. The health insurer generated more than 80% of its premiums and services revenue in 2022 from offering government-backed Medicare plans. UnitedHealth had flagged higher costs earlier this week following an increase in surgeries among older adults, wiping out billions in the market capitalization of health insurers including Humana. On the flip side, the rise in medical procedures is expected to help hospital operators and medical device makers, especially those in the orthopedic space.

Persons: UnitedHealth, Leroy Leo, Anil D'Silva Organizations: Humana Inc, Humana, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ US retail sales rose in May
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Retail sales at stores, online and in restaurants grew 0.3% in May from April, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday. Retail sales data is adjusted for seasonality but not for inflation. Excluding sales at gasoline stations, retail spending increased by a faster clip of 0.6%. From a year ago, overall retail sales rose 1.6% in May. Impact of the labor marketWhile retail sales held up in May, spending has erred on the weaker side after a big jump in January.

Persons: Brian Field, ”, Joshua Shapiro, Maria Fiorini Ramirez, Jerome Powell, Thomas Simons, Deborah Weinswig Organizations: DC CNN, Commerce Department, Sensormatic Solutions, CNN, Federal Reserve, Jefferies, “, Coresight Locations: Washington

☆ I built an Airbnb in Kenya from old shipping containers and it was an instant success
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Michelle Mastro | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Hough's property is built from reused shipping containers, and guests can see resident wildlife. When we did decide to build, we chose shipping containers primarily because the area had no electricity or running water. We wanted to build something sustainableThe shipping containers were reused from a shipping company. We employed experts for the more technical jobs, of course, like building the shipping containers. Overall, having a unique Airbnb has been a great experienceI love how Airbnb makes hosting so easy and makes you feel protected.

Persons: Moon Hough, Hough, —, welders, Nairobians, We've, it's, Rangi, I've, I'm, Airbnb Organizations: Service, YouTube Locations: Nairobi, Kenya

☆ A 27-year-old Airbnb host with 25 units says he works less than 15 hours a week thanks to 3 software tools
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

He started doing rental arbitrage and has since set up 25 Airbnb units that bring in up to $88,000 in monthly revenue. He says he works less than 15 hours a week, thanks to software tools like PriceLabs and Hospitable. "If I did overtime, I might bring home $700 to $800 a week, but that was after working 50 hours." PriceLabsOne of the early challenges Turner ran into was figuring out how to properly price his Airbnb units. Monday.comTo help manage his 10 employees, delegate tasks, and keep the internal team organized, Turner uses Monday.com.

Persons: Nathan Turner, Turner, Taniera, —, PriceLabs, Monday.com, I'm, It's Organizations: FedEx Locations: Houston , Texas, PriceLabs

☆ Famed economist David Rosenberg says home prices are set to fall further as buyers retreat to the sidelines and a hawkish Fed means stubbornly high mortgage rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

With mortgage rates unlikely to budge and incomes unlikely to grow, prices are due to drop. Housing affordability is calculated by accounting for three variables: home prices, mortgage rates, and incomes. Ian Shepherdson, the chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics who said in the 2005 that a housing downturn would spark a recession, made the same argument in recent weeks. Now that's quite striking because mortgage rates are no longer at peak, but applications are still falling. This would send interest rates — and therefore mortgage rates, which trade closely with Treasury rates — higher, further hurting demand and affordability, Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi recently told Fortune.

☆ A 27-year-old started 'Airbnb arbitrage' after getting laid off during the pandemic. He explains how he got his first rental with $6,400 upfront and scaled to 25 units in less than 2 years.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

After being laid off in March 2020 Nathan and Taniera Turner started looking into real estate. Today, they have 25 Airbnb units in three different states, plus an Airbnb cleaning business. They continued working with the client, who owned six Airbnb units total, and started learning more about the hosting side of the business. "They were telling us about their journey and how they were able to quit their jobs from doing Airbnb," said Turner. Moving to Houston and using rental arbitrage to set up an Airbnb rental with $6,400The Turners continued picking up clients and cleaning Airbnb properties in Louisville.

As doubts grow about the strength of its economic recovery, foreign money has left China's markets and the currency has fallen 4% against the dollar since late January. Analysts at Nomura and Societe Generale say the yuan could soon head for 7.3, which as last plumbed in November. Reflecting that, the trade-weighted CFETS basket against which the People's Bank of China (PBOC) manages the currency, has dropped to 99 from 100 in February. THE CHEAP CURRENCYBecky Liu, head of China macro strategy at Standard Chartered Bank, expects the yuan will continue to depreciate. "The interest rate gap remains wide, so many hedge funds continue to use yuan as a funding currency," Liu said.

Berkshire acquired 9.92 million shares in Capital One, a stake worth $954 million based on the closing price on March 31, regulatory filings showed on Monday. The bank's shares have shed around 15% since early March as the banking crisis has clobbered shares of U.S. regional lenders. Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank are the three banks that have so far collapsed during the current crisis. The KBW Regional Banking Index (.KRX) fell 0.38%. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr said the central bank was "carefully considering" rule changes for larger regional banks, including requiring them to account for unrealized losses on their banks when considering capital levels.

☆ How to explore Greece's lesser-known islands like a local
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | Morgan Awyong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

But now it wants tourists to get to know lesser-known locations across its thousands of sprawling islands. Currently, Germany and the U.K. represent Greece's largest inbound tourism markets by revenue, followed by the United States, France and Italy. An eco-paradise surrounded by 24 islets, Lipsi forms part of the Dodecanese island collection in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Alonissos, SporadesDivers' delight Alonissos, part of the Sporades group of islands, is a diver's paradise and the site of Greece's first underwater museum. Alonissos, part of the Sporades archipelago in the northwest Aegean Sea, is known for its diving spots, including Greece's first underwater museum, the "Parthenon of the Wrecks."

☆ 2 Bullish signals suggest the S&P 500 could surge 19% to record highs over the coming year, Bank of America says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

There are two bullish signals that suggest the stock market could trade to record highs by early next year. BofA says a bullish breakout in global breadth means the S&P 500 could surge 19% from current levels. "Bullish technical backdrop signals support the case for a higher S&P 500 into year-end and early 2024," BofA said. "Bullish technical backdrop signals support the case for a higher S&P 500 into year-end and early 2024." This bullish indicator triggered a breakout in February, and that "does not rule out S&P 500 4,900 into February 2024," Suttmeier said.

BEIJING, May 9 (Reuters) - China's imports contracted sharply in April, while exports grew at a slower pace, reinforcing signs of feeble domestic demand despite the lifting of COVID curbs and heaping pressure on an economy already struggling in the face of cooling global growth. Economists in a Reuters poll had predicted no growth in imports and an 8.0% increase in exports. Analysts say cooling global growth pointed to a longer road to recovery for the Asian giant after Beijing abruptly ended tough COVID curbs in December. South Korean exports to China, a leading indicator of China's imports, were down 26.5% in April, continuing 10 consecutive months of decline. China's economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter thanks to robust services consumption, but factory output has lagged amid weak global growth.

☆ China's exports rose 8.5%, continuing its growth streak at a slower pace
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Jihye Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

China's exports grew 8.5% in April in U.S. dollar terms, marking a second-straight month of growth, while imports fell 7.9% compared with a year ago. Economists polled by Reuters estimated exports would rise 8% in April, while imports were forecast to remain unchanged. In March, imports declined 1.4% year-on-year while exports saw a surprise jump of 14.8%, government data showed. Goldman Sachs economists expected to see "the dissipation of this seasonal bias to slow export growth in April," they wrote in a note earlier this month previewing China's trade data. "China is past the fastest stage of its reopening," Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a separate Friday note.

☆ Morgan Stanley's Slimmon says it's dangerous to be too defensive, names top 'offensive' stock picks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

"I do not see much upside in the market near-term," Slimmon, senior portfolio manager at the firm, said in notes sent to CNBC on Tuesday. Stocks to buy Slimmon said it's time to buy some "offensive" stocks. Offensive stocks are those that tend to do well when the market goes up, while defensive sectors are the sectors that outperform when the market goes down. "So I think it's very dangerous to own just very defensive stocks … I think you want some offensive in your portfolio," Slimmon told CNBC's " Squawk Box Asia " on Tuesday. Near-term opportunity Slimmon said there's one area he sees as a near-term opportunity: China.

Caterpillar shares turn around CAT YTD mountain Caterpillar YTD Dow component Caterpillar delivered a blowout first quarter. Caterpillar revenue in Q1 increased 16.7% year over year to $15.86 billion, exceeding estimates of $15.26 billion, according to Refinitiv. Better-than-expected operating margin of 17% was so strong, due mostly to manufacturing costs that were not as high as expected as well as higher prices. Bottom Line on CAT This was a very strong quarter from Caterpillar as business continues to benefit from pricing power that outweighs costs. Even with oil down in the quarter, Caterpillar continues to see a lot of activity and strength in new engine sales to customers.

Expressed in terms of annualised run-rates, China's output of 39.9 million tonnes last month was the lowest in a year and down by 1.6 million tonnes from August's record 41.5 million. China's aluminium production is now highly dependent on weather patterns in the south of the country. China's average daily aluminium output and monthly annualised changePRAYING FOR RAINYunnan province accounts for around 12% of China's aluminium capacity and produced 4.2 million tonnes in 2022. WESTERN PRODUCTION FLAT-LINESPrimary aluminium production outside of China was flat year-on-year in the first quarter. WEATHER WATCHHowever, China's dominant position in the global aluminium picture means that it holds the key to future production patterns.

REUTERS/Nadja Wohlleben/File PhotoApril 20 (Reuters) - From cannabis-infused flowers to edible weed gummies, marijuana companies are pulling out all the stops as they eye bumper sales on April 20 - a day referred to as "4/20" in weed culture. Industry insiders expect highest single-day sales ever for the cannabis sector on Thursday even as the industry faces increased scrutiny from lawmakers in the United States. 4/20, derived from a trope for smoking marijuana, typically sees cannabis companies such as High Tide, Canopy Growth (WEED.TO), and Trulieve Cannabis Corp (TRUL.CD) amp up promotions, throwing in exclusive deals and discounts to lure customers. Wholesale cannabis platform Leaflink expects sales of infused flowers and pre-rolled joints to jump 500%-1,000% compared to 2022. According to seasonality data from cannabis data firm BDSA, cannabis retailers see more sales on Thursdays than on Wednesdays and Tuesdays.

☆ Investors who 'sell in May and go away' this year could miss a big summer rally in the stock market, Bank of America says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Investors that follow the old Wall Street adage "sell in May and go away" could miss a summer rally this year, according to Bank of America. The bank found that the stock market tends to rally during the summer of the third year of a presidential cycle. "Instead of 'sell in May and go away' it should be 'buy in May and sell July/August,'" BofA said. The old Wall Street adage references the fact that the stock market has historically performed weak during the six-month period of May through October. "May can be a weak month for the S&P 500, but if you 'sell in May and go away' you could miss a Summer rally," Suttmeier said.

☆ Shares of Roblox fall 12% after company releases March update
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Shares of Roblox tumbled 12% on Monday after the gaming company released its March 2023 metrics report that showed it expects average bookings per daily user to fall year over year. Estimated bookings were between $247 million and $255 million for the month, up 23% to 27% year over year. Roblox calls its revenue figure bookings. Roblox also said it will stop releasing monthly key metrics reports. Shares of Roblox are up more than 60% year to date.

☆ Retail spending fell in March as consumers pull back
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

Washington, DC CNN —Spending at US retailers fell in March as consumers pulled back amid recessionary fears fueled by the banking crisis. Retail sales, which are adjusted for seasonality but not for inflation, fell by 1% in March from the prior month, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. That was steeper than an expected 0.4% decline, according to Refinitiv, and above the revised 0.2% decline in the prior month. This story is developing and will be updated.

☆ RSV cases in US show signs of return to pre-pandemic seasonality - CDC
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 6 (Reuters) - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) circulation is showing signs of return to pre-pandemic seasonality in the U.S. after two years of irregular onsets and peaks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday. Typically, cases of RSV virus that can cause severe illness or death in the very young and old rose in October before waning in April. The varying timing could be challenging for drugmakers racing to get their RSV vaccines to the market. In both pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, RSV cases began to surge earlier in Florida and the Southeast and later in regions further north and west, the researchers said. "Policy makers should consider RSV seasonality when making recommendations about the timing of studies and administration of new immunization and other RSV prevention products," the report said.

☆ 'We're not out of the woods': Sweden’s sliding house prices could be only halfway to the bottom
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Hannah Ward-Glenton | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Sweden's house prices are expected to continue to plummet. Danske previously projected a 20% drop, peak to trough, in Swedish house prices. The data shows house prices rose by 1% compared with February. When adjusted for seasonality, the increase translates into a small decline of 0.3%, with house prices typically growing slightly at the start of each year. SEB is maintaining its forecast of a 20% drop in Swedish house prices, but with downside risk.

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